Thinking Beyond the Box

Packaging has traditionally played two roles: it has served as protection for the product contents and assisted in establishing brand identity and attracting consumer attention. In recent years, since so many buying decisions are made in the retail store itself, that second role has taken on increasing significance. Packaging companies have used bold colors, specialized inks and complex graphics to grab consumer attention for their product and away from the competition.

Today, package designers have an additional toolinteractive printed media (IPM). According to Kate Stone, founder of Novalia, “Interactive printed media is a simple but very powerful and enabling concept; it means to add real- time interactivity to potentially any item that is printed.”